FTR Gives One Of The Reasons They Left WWE

Since leaving WWE in the first half of 2020, FTR has found nothing short of massive success as tag team wrestlers in their two-plus years away from the company they started in together.

While on the "Battleground Podcast," current IWGP Tag Team Champions FTR — Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler — discussed one of the reasons they initially left WWE.

"Before AEW became a thing, our idea was to finish up WWE, go to Japan, and we wanted to win the IWGP Tag Team Championships," Harwood said. "... To be able to Internationally do what we've done here in the states is awesome too."

"... When we were making our decision on taking our career into our own hands a few years ago and leaving, like, New Japan was one of the reasons," Wheeler said. "We wanted to go and wrestle in New Japan. We wanted to win these titles."

Since leaving WWE, FTR has not wrestled in Japan, however, the duo currently holds the IWGP Tag Team Championships belonging to New Japan Pro Wrestling, indicating that FTR may be making their way over to Japan to defend the titles. The IWGP Tag Team Championships are not the only set of gold held by the Top Guys as they also currently have the AAA Tag Team Championships, titles they defeated the Lucha Brothers in October 2021, and the ROH Tag Team Championships, which they won when they defeated the Briscoes at Supercard of Honor 2021 in an intense match.

Harwood and Wheeler were able to find success in their six years together as a tag team in WWE, winning the NXT Tag Team Championships twice, the Raw Tag Team Championships twice, and the SmackDown Tag Team Championship once. Despite their multiple tag title wins, tag team wrestling is not necessarily a focal point in WWE, and the duo was not interested in re-signing with the company when their most recent contract was up. WWE released FTR on April 10th, 2o20, just days before the first set of mass releases due to the pandemic.

Tonight, at Death Before Dishonor, FTR will take on The Briscoes in a highly-anticipated rematch. It is scheduled to be a Two-Out -Of-Three-Falls Match for the ROH Tag Team Championships. FTR most recently wrestled on the June 29th edition of AEW "Dynamite," teaming with Danhausen to defeat the team of The Gunn Club and Max Caster.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "Battleground Podcast" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.